You should study in-service graduate students first. As for the exam, you can teach yourself first, or sign up for a training class, which will give you plenty of time. If you are particularly in a hurry, you can take cfra instead of cfa. This is chinese registered financial analysts, and the questions are all the same. However, this exam is in Chinese, which saves a lot of things. If you insist on taking cfa, you can also attend a cfra training class first. Now many Hong Kong people apply for cfra training courses in the Mainland, and then go back to Hong Kong to take cfa exams. As for ciia, I'm not sure.